Scandinavian folk craft was born of long winters and short days: cloth knotted for warmth, wool knitted against the cold, and colour painted onto everything to hold the dark at bay.
✨ Fun fact: The rya rug began as a Viking sailor’s blanket, knotted with a deep wool pile to keep out the cold at sea. Only later did it move indoors, and later still onto the wall behind a bride.
As a house that lives by handwork, we find a deep kinship in the North, where the same instincts we know in Banaras (patience, warmth, and cloth made for the great moments of a life) run through every craft.
The rya, a knotted rug with a Persian cousin
Scandinavia’s great textile is the rya (in Finnish, ryijy), a woollen rug with a long, shaggy knotted pile. It is made with a form of the same knot the Turks and Persians used, and it is, in truth, a close cousin of the Persian carpet: knotted pile, worked by hand, only with the knots set further apart and the wool left long for warmth. That kinship is no accident. One of the oldest surviving Turkish carpets, the Marby rug, was found in a country church in Sweden, carried north along the same trade roads that brought Islamic silk to the Vikings.
The rya began as a boat blanket and a bedcover, its pile turned inward against the body. But by the eighteenth century it had become a wedding cloth: a ryijy was hung behind the bridal couple, or given as part of a dowry, and worked with the tree of life, birds of happiness, crowns, and the couple’s initials and the year. A rug knotted by hand to bless a marriage, carrying a tree of life, is an idea a Banaras weaver knows in the bone, and one we meet again in the dowry weaving of the Turkmen.
The Sami and duodji
In the far north, across Norway, Sweden and Finland, the Sami people keep a craft tradition of their own, called duodji. Two parts of it are pure textile art. The first is band weaving: narrow, warp-faced woven bands in bright geometric patterns, used for belts, shoe-ties, straps and the binding of a cradle. The second is tin-thread embroidery, in which fine pewter wire, drawn and flattened, is couched in coiling patterns onto reindeer leather and wool to trim the gákti, the Sami coat. Metal thread laid onto cloth by hand, for a garment of ceremony, is the very impulse behind our own zardozi.
Knitting, and the eight-pointed star
The North’s best-loved craft is its knitting. The Selbu mittens of Norway, worked in crisp black and white, are patterned with the Selburose, an eight-petalled star that spread from the village of Selbu in the mid-nineteenth century until it became a national emblem. Young women knitted mittens by the pair as gifts and betrothal tokens, so that here too, a woman’s handwork accompanied a courtship and a wedding.
And that eight-pointed star is not Norway’s alone. The very same octagram runs through Islamic tilework, Byzantine mosaic and Central Asian weaving; you will find its cousin in the zellij of Morocco and in an Uzbek suzani. A single star, understood from Marrakesh to the Arctic Circle. Iceland has its own knitting in the yoked lopapeysa sweater, and Sweden its lustrous, fine-gauge Bohus knitting, each a whole language of pattern worked in wool.
Weaving, glass and painted wood
Sweden has a long weaving tradition of its own, above all rölakan, a flat tapestry-weave of geometric figures used for cushions and coverlets. The region is also famous for its glass, the clean and celebrated crystal of Orrefors and Kosta. And colour was painted onto everything: Norway’s flowing floral rosemaling on chests and walls, and the little carved and painted red Dala horse of Sweden, perhaps the most beloved folk object in all of Scandinavia.
Where to see it
- Nordiska museet, Stockholm, the great museum of Swedish folk life and textiles.
- National Museum of Finland, Helsinki, for the historic ryijy.
- Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo, for rosemaling, knitting and folk dress.
- Ájtte, Jokkmokk, the Sami museum, for duodji and the gákti.
The thread we love
A rug knotted by hand to hang behind a bride. A star shared with half the world. Pewter thread coiled onto reindeer leather for a coat of ceremony. Strip away the snow, and every one of these is a conviction we hold at our own looms: that cloth made by hand carries warmth and meaning, and belongs to the great moments of a life. Explore our handwoven Brocade Fabric collection.
Frequently asked questions
What is Scandinavia known for in crafts?
Knotted rya rugs, patterned Selbu and Bohus knitting, Sami duodji (band weaving and pewter-thread embroidery), rölakan flatweave, rosemaling folk painting, the red Dala horse, and fine Swedish glass.
What is a rya rug?
A traditional Scandinavian wool rug with a long knotted pile, made with a form of the Turkish knot. It began as a Viking blanket and bedcover and later became a treasured wedding and dowry textile, especially in Finland, where it is called ryijy.
What is the Selburose?
An eight-petalled star, or octagram, the signature motif of Norway’s black-and-white Selbu mitten knitting. It spread from the village of Selbu in the mid-1800s to become a national symbol, and belongs to the same family as the eight-pointed stars of Islamic and Central Asian art.
What is Sami duodji?
The traditional handcraft of the Sami people of the far north, which includes warp-patterned band weaving and tin (pewter) thread embroidery on reindeer leather, used to make and decorate the gákti and its accessories.
Sources & further reading
On the rya and ryijy, Selbu knitting and Sami duodji, see the collections of the Nordiska museet (Stockholm), the National Museum of Finland (Helsinki), the Norsk Folkemuseum (Oslo) and Ájtte, the Sami museum (Jokkmokk).
More from Khinkhwab Diaries: the crafts of Morocco · the Turkmen carpet · the crafts of Uzbekistan · the crafts of Poland.
